**7. References**

26 New Approaches to the Study of Marine Mammals

**6. Conclusion** 

collected since Aristotle.

**Author details** 

Aldemaro Romero

**Acknowledgement** 

*IL, USA* 

biology (see Romero 2009, Chapter 1).

Springer for similar help with Pliny's work.

This progress is even more remarkable when considering that Linnaeus was far from an evolutionist. For him species were fixed except for small variations due to climatic/local conditions. Yet, Linnaeus was, without question, the founder of systematics and the one who laid the foundations for the naturalists to become specialists and, therefore, opened the door for the first group of marine mammal specialists, now that these creatures were not longer considered "fishes." It was not until Linnaeus that the science of taxonomy made the strides that have lead us to where we are today in our understanding of the natural world. Linnaeus understood biological principles and placed animals in groups based on homologies rather than using environment to drive classification, and this was what

Persuing at the information provided above there are a number of discernable patterns. One is the preponderance of pre-Linnean researchers interested in marine mammals who had a medical background of some sort. That is not surprising because medicine was the closest thing to science as a career existed until the eighteenth century. Also, being interested in medicine created more opportunities to dissect animals and, therefore, understanding of their internal anatomy that was particularly crucial in establishing the homology between cetaceans and the "viviparous quadrupeds." Yet, this positive influence was marred by the proliferation of encyclopedists who, for the most part, were uncritical compilers of other authors' information. However, the major impediment to any attempts to develop a natural classification for cetaceans was the insistence on classifying them by virtue of the environment in which they live, something that even diverted the thoughts of keen observers such as Ray and Artedi, despite of abundant evidence to the contrary having been

Finally, we should not overlook the role played by intellectual inertia in the development of science. As Horder (1998) clearly demonstrated, scientists need to know the history of their field to avoid errors of the past, something that has also been argued for specific fields of

*College of Arts and Sciences, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Peck Hall, Edwardsville,* 

I thank Dr. Matthew Cashen for his advice interpreting Aristotle's writings and to Dr. Carl

allowed him to recognized cetaceans as a distinct group within mammals.


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**Section 2** 

**Physiology** 

**Section 2** 
